Miss. manages to keep some control of local issues

4:09 PM,
Mar. 4, 2013

Written by

Emily Wagster

Mississippi lawmakers get hopping mad when Washington tries to tell the state what it can or can't do. But, they've been plenty willing this session to make the state government exert similar control over local government.

The House passed a bill that says cities and counties can't ban junk food or limit the size of soft drinks. If the bill becomes law, it would mean, for example, that the tiny Delta town of Alligator couldn't put a local regulation on the sale of Kool-Aid pickles in convenience stores or impose the same kind of no-big-sodas rule that Mayor Michael Bloomberg set in New York City.